Tuesday, August 10, 2021

True cardamom, false cardamom, and the tropical garden

And sometimes the terrace is a mess. Because it all happens here, on the stone table. Potting, transplanting, and after it is all swept and wiped away, supper. 

I divided the galangal early in the year, planting the smaller version of itself in a temporary black nursery growpot. It has been thriving, so I decided to dignify it with a terra cotta home and there it is, bottom right on the table.

In the back is true cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum), from Companion Plants, and now residing in a larger pot, too. "True" cardamom has a long backstory: a year-and-a-half ago I learned, thanks to a sniping but enlightening comment from an obsessed plant geek (who has never re-surfaced), and then a lot of rabbithole research, that most, if not all, the so-called cardamom plants being grown for sale in this country are not. Cardamom, that is. Instead, they are false cardamom (Alpinia nutans). And most growers themselves are unaware. So for years I grew the flourishing false, thinking it was the true. (How do you know which you have? In the words of Randy, the grower ar Randy's Tropical Plants, with whom I corresponded about telling true cardamom apart from false: "If the foliage is fragrant, then it is not Elettaria cardamomum.  It is almost certainly Alpinia nutans." So crush and sniff, and sorry. But the false cardamom is still a great, low-maintenance house plant!). 

In conversation with Peter Borchard, of Companion Plants (which is one of my favorite growers of esoterica, based in southeast Ohio) he promised me the real deal, when he learned that he, too, had unwittingly been growing the false. So as soon as their single, verified parent plant had babies - they are easy to propagate, like all rhizomatous members of the Zingiberaceae family - they kindly sent me one. (The first specimen was mistakenly shipped to our previous address, so perhaps our Horrible Neighbor benefited. Eeeh. Bad memories. The bike slasher and shouter. He was convinced we were stealing his parcels. It was fascinating, but not fun, like a car crash. The second shipment arrived here, safely.) 

So will I get cardamom pods? Maybe not. Randy said it is unusual for them to bloom unless conditions are perfect, and also said that they must be hand pollinated (like vanilla). 

In the blue pot (bought in desperation, since stores have run out of terra cotta, thanks to pandemic garden-mania) is the black pepper vine (Piper nigrum, and yes, the producer of green and black peppercorns; well, not yet. [Update, 2022: It is NOT black pepper. It is a species of betel! Same grower]). It came from Companion Plants, too. It settled in so well that it needed an upgrade in terms of size, and is now feeling better in blue. Even if I have my doubts about the color. It will come inside in winter, of course, to join the tropical flock of citrus, and various members of the ginger family. I have no idea how it will take to dry indoor conditions in winter, but I have learned that the more plants I have indoors, the higher the humidity levels. When the air is freezing out, there is film of moisture on the double-glazed windows. A liveable greenhouse.

Now, in late, tropical summer, a frigid winter seems impossible. Our outdoor humidity is at 73% while we shelter indoors, refreshed by central air (set to a reasonable 78'F - is that reasonable?). But winter will come, as it always does, and tropical forest will join us for the duration.

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66 Square Feet - The Book


7 comments:

  1. Just realized it's been many weeks since I checked in at Blogspot, and there were your Silk Road lilies! So gorgeous, and I could almost smell them from here! Glad to see that all is well on the terrace. Same here - but the terribly hot weather finally broke today. Now if the humidity would just drop. Stay well.

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  2. I've got a false one in my kitchen. Thanks for letting me know the difference. Can I use the aromatic leaves? Are they edible?

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    1. I did use the aromatic leaves for years - I think they are wonderful in braised dishes with a SE Asian influence...

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